Tucson Speaks out: May 23 letters of the day

Biden condemns protests — under pressure

Anti-Israel protests on college and university campuses have become more violent over the last days and weeks, but there was silence about it from President Biden. It was only after mounting political pressure that he finally came out and publicly denounced it on May 2, a day after widespread arrests of students on campuses across the country. These college and university rioters are the same ones that Biden would provide billions in taxpayer funded debt relief to. He desperately needs their vote in November and the White House must have been in conflict over denouncing their rioting, thus the delay. It may be a lost cause as they are already ticked off at him for supporting Israel, more so now because of his signing recent legislation providing more military funding to them as the war continues. I have no doubt though that Biden campaign schemers will devise some plan to further bribe students into voting for him. Maybe pressuring prosecutors across the country to dismiss charges against them.

Langhorne Bilby Marana

AZ Star article Maui climate refugees

Re: the May 7 article “Couple looks for new start in Tucson as ‘climate refugees’.”

Come on! There had been a tropical storm off the coast of Maui, which was not uncommon. The mountains there can create a funnel effect for wind. Yes it was dry, but the two major factors in that devastating Lahaina fire were the Hawaii Electric Power company not powering down its lines soon enough with downed lines causing fires and fired brush underneath the lines not having been removed. Multiple civil suits, including by Maui County officials, have been filed against the company for failing to maintain its infrastructure. Additionally, water was not readily available as a native Hawaiian state official in charge of water release to the area refused to initially provide it out of DEI concerns as it might disproportionately harm local taro farmers. This devastating Maui fire had more to do with human errors than climate change!

Janice DeAngelo

Tubac

Creativity void

Congratulations Justice Alito. You have convincingly demonstrated precisely how devoid you are of creativity. Was “my wife did it” the best you could do? My son’s “the dog ate my homework” was less original but more creative. We did not have a dog.

Kenneth Haber

Northwest side

Healthcare frustrations

A patient who was frustrated with a delay in testing recently told me “I now understand why Medicare pays you all less yearly”. The people suffering from broken healthcare are undoubtedly the patients, but doctors and nurses are not OK either. Unless we attend to this fact, none of us will be assured of getting healthcare when we need it the most. I have personally seen four excellent surgeons close our practices due to rising costs/inflation coupled with yearly cuts in reimbursement. I recently went to DC to meet with legislative staff of Senators Sinema and Kelly to share my story and how it affected the patients that had depended on me for 16 years in Oro Valley. Unfortunately, my experience is not isolated. There are many opportunities for improvement in U.S. Healthcare, but most immediately, we must support adequate Insurance payments to assure adequate healthcare staffing in our communities.

Sarah Lee-Davisson, MD

Northwest side

Should be front page news

Re: the May 19 article “Violent-crime trend encouraging, not cataclysmic.”

Why was the above Star editorial not on the front page? This was not only good news, but it also refuted false facts being circulated by the Goldwater Institute. I understand that the original piece was on the op-ed page, however it was an essay purporting to be factual and not just an opinion piece. We have to assume that the Goldwater Institute was spreading misinformation in more news sources other than the Arizona Star. This article on the front page (or at least page 1 of the Tucson Region section) would have had more exposure than the Opinion page.

Reporting the inaccuracy in the same location as the original falsehoods is an editorial decision, but I believe newspapers and other news outlets should be more aware of their duty to report facts to readers of the whole paper. This editorial was not an opinion.

Cindy Soffrin

Northeast side

Length of green arrow

Re: the May 20 letter “Traffic lights.”

I agree that changing the turn signal to a (red-green arrow) was and is a great idea. My only problem is the length that the green arrow is on. They did not adjust the time. I use the intersection Grant and Craycroft several times a week and have seen many wrecks. But the turn lane can get very long during rush hours, and maybe 4-5 cars can get through on the green arrow and as many as 3-5 turn after it has changed yellow and then red. Sometime taking three light changes to make your left turn. The city really needs to adjust the length of the green arrow.

Daniel Ford

East side

You don’t know Fascism

Re: the May 20 letter “The fabrications.”

The writer refers to Trump’s famous “cleaning fluid” speech of April 23, 2020, in the WH Briefing Room. Google it and watch for yourself how Trump revealed the possibility to his naive loyalists of injecting disinfectants into one’s body to avert the virus.

Dr. Birx, WH Coronavirus Response Coordinator, was stunned, in fact, Trump’s participation during the pandemic (under his watch) was responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of American lives. In his article, the writer is more obsessed with blaming “liberal media” (his words) than reflecting on the consequences of Trump’s statements at the press briefing.

Past letters from the writer depict someone educated, experienced, socially engaging, and thoughtful. He could be well served by studying Fascism; its genesis, development, and consequences. I’ve reminded readers to believe in Trump’s philosophy and ideology for governance because they align with Mussolini and Hitler. Please pay attention; a Trump election would effectively end representative democracy and endanger our world.

Ernest Saccani

Foothills

Ousting of judges

As I read about how certain organizations are going to work on ousting judges King and Bolick. I find it interesting that they want to oust only them. I have been voting since 1968 and I have always voted to oust every judge up for retention. My personal opinion is that judges should not be elected or appointed to lifetime positions (including local, state, federal judges). Under the current system even judges that are rated low by the various legal groups are almost always retaining their positions.

If voters just voted for removal of all judges up for retention, we would have younger and more energetic lawyers being appointed or elected to the bench.

I know a lot of voters just ignore voting for the judges because they know so little about their record on the bench. They need to be aware that they are voting to give the judges a lifetime appointment and vote to remove them from the bench.

James McLin

East side

Democracy

Recently Mr. Trump posted a video to his social media suggesting a second term for him would create a “unified Reich” in America. Seriously, this is crazy. I am outraged. All should be outraged. And it’s not like he hasn’t referred to Nazi Germany in the past and his infatuation with Hitler. “Those who don’t know history are bound to repeat it.” He does not know history, we do. My father served in the Navy during World War II to extinguish this autocracy. Many of our fathers and mothers did so too. Over 400,000 American Forces lost their lives in this serious endeavor, not to mention the 6 million Jewish lives lost. We need to remember the lost lives of all and the history of where autocracy could take us. Vote for democracy. Vote for freedom. Please do not vote for autocracy.

John (Jay) Van Echo, PE West side

GOP embraces election fraud

Why is it that the GOP, both locally, statewide, and nationally, has not taken the opportunity during the last three plus years to contribute to the improvement and integrity of the election system? Rather they’ve continued to denigrate this system even though there has been no proof of election fraud. There’s been plenty of time to help assure that the next elections are beyond question. The GOP has not seen fit to help do so.

And now, with the 2024 elections on the horizon, many GOPers are already posturing to be able to deny the election results if they’re not favorable. By any measure this is not just non-productive and undemocratic, but a hallmark of fascism. If you look closely, historically, you can see that the path to authoritarianism is being paved by the GOP. Election denial is just one facet of that effort to undermine democracy. Election fraud stirs the pot.

Scott Lukomski

Northeast side

A common-sense rebuttal

Re: the May 22 letter “Palo Verde trees a blazing.”

Please consider that not all Tucson citizens celebrate the yellow blooms each spring. I offer this:

Tissue

When spring arrives

after winter gloom,

and feathers tickle your nose,

like pepper to sweeping broom,

let’s be wise and sensible,

and not quick remedy assume.

better to buy boxes of

of, of, of,

ti, ti, ti- shoo!

nebbermind,

tumbody plede

padd duh dissue.

John E. Irby

Southeast side